Nigeria’s .ng domain adoption grows 15.49 per cent in 1 year

Omobayo Azeez

• As NiRA introduces palliative domain prices

Registration of Nigerian domain name, .ng country’s code top-level domain (ccTLD) has recorded traction growing by 15.49 per cent in the last 12 months.

A country’s code Top Level Domain Name is the country’s identity in the cyberspace and for Nigeria, this is the .ng and websites that bear the ccTLD indicate that they originate from Nigeria.

According to the latest statistics on the .ng domain registration, obtained by our correspondent for the custodian of the country’s internet identity data, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NiRA), the total number of .ng websites stood at 164,542 as at July this year.

This represents 15.49 per cent growth from 142,479 active websites carrying Nigerian identity in the cyber space as at July, 2019 and 32.9 per cent rise from 123,812 it stood in 2018.

On a month-on-month basis, the latest figure shows additional 4,266 recorded in the month under review, growing by 2.66 per cent from 160,276 .ng websites at the end of June.

As the custodian and promoter of adoption of the indigenous internet domain name, NiRA has emphasized the need for businesses, individuals, private and public enterprises to cultivate the habit of giving their operations internet presence by activating websites.

It however insists that in doing this, adopting the Nigerian ccTLD, which is the identity of the country on the internet, would indicate that the websites not only originate from Nigeria but also, gives the country broader reach to the rest of the world.
According to NiRA President, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) assigns to each country and territory, a country code top level domain.

He said for almost twenty years, ICANN had worked closely with managers of ccTLDs, adding that “For Nigeria the ccTLD is .ng, for Uganda the ccTLD is .ug, for Egypt the ccTLD is .eg, among others.”

Rudman had said “the .ng Registry is dynamic. As an organisation, NiRA is determined to continue to respond to the specific challenges of the DNS Industry in Nigeria, while striving to ensure compliance with international best practices.”
Pursuant of this goal,the registry has just introduced a new palliative initiative to encourage more organizations, particularly small and medium enterprises to take their products and services online.

In January 2017, NiRA publicly declared a mechanism to be used for reducing prices of .ng domain names based on the number of actual .ng domain registrations at the second level, so as to stimulate the uptake of the .ng domain name string and demystify the perception that .ng domain names are expensive.

This mechanism which is known as the “NiRA Price Charter” has been beneficial in reducing the price of .ng domain names for over three years now.

However, in the light of the challenges being faced by many businesses in the COVID-19 era, NiRA desired to support businesses that require taking their products and services online.

NiRA therefore offers, as a palliative in these tough times and in an effort to promote Nigerian businesses online, to make these businesses more competitive and available.

According to the association, this is an opportunity for all to register non-premium second level .ng domain names at a largely discounted price, for a limited period of three months.

The NiRA president had highlighted benefits attached to operating .ng websites to include security, as the Nigerian .ng will prevent Nigerian sites from being regulated by foreign laws; prevention of capital flight, better speed, brand protection, local targeting and search engine optimization (SEO), among others.

According to him, NiRA would strive to record 100 per cent increase in new domain registrations annually, 30 per cent in the number of registrars and excel in the provision of its core services, by ensuring 99.9 per cent uptime within the period.